


you're not evil

by sxftmelody



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sxftmelody/pseuds/sxftmelody
Summary: Cheryl's a mermaid who saves Toni from drowning.





	you're not evil

**Author's Note:**

> I started watching Siren from Freeform and this happened.

Toni has never believed in mermaids. Her father, before he lost all his money and backpacked across the country, used to tell her tales about the creatures. He’d call them stunning and wicked, telling stories of fishermen who’d fall in love with them only to be killed by them, of hunters whose sole purpose was to kill them, of tourists who were unlucky enough to get close to one. 

 

Even her grandpa, who took her in when she was eleven, would tell her such stories.

 

She thought it was a load of bullshit.

 

So, when Sweet Pea nudges her, all excited and whatnot as they boarded the boat on their first trip with the gang, saying “What if we end up seeing a  _ mermaid _ ?”, Toni rolls her eyes.

 

“Alright,” FP calls out loudly, getting the attention of his crew, “this is not supposed to be an offensive trip.”

 

He looks up at the sky, grey and cloudy, “the weather isn’t looking too hot. We run into any Ghoulies, our first plan is to get backup, you hear me?”

 

“Yes, sir!”

 

Sweet Pea’s voice is loudest of them all, and Toni cringes. 

 

“Alright, anchors up!”

 

//

 

Unfortunately so, the Ghoulies are out on the water (in full force, too). In comparison to the Serpent’s two ships, the Ghoulies have five. The rough waves and the pouring rain isn’t helping, either.

 

There are bullets being shot everywhere as soon as the separate gangs catch sight of the other one’s flags. Ghoulies dispatch onto tiny boats, rushing towards the Serpent ships. Some are shot, others start swimming.

 

They’re climbing up and onto the boats before the crew and realize what’s even happening.

 

Toni rushes to Sweet Pea’s side as he struggles against a few Ghoulies trying to climb onto their ship. She kicks a couple of them off and grabs onto Sweet Pea’s arm as he nearly stumbles over the side of the boat.

 

“Where’s your gun?!” Toni shouts, grabbing onto a railing to steady herself.

 

“Fell over the damn boat!” he responds.

 

“There’s too many of them!” FP shouts from somewhere behind Toni.

 

The ship crashes into something, Toni can’t see what, and her grip on the rail loosens. She finds herself flung over the side of the ship with Sweet Pea calling out her name. There’s a flash of lightning just before she feels her ribs collide with one of the Ghoulies’ smaller boats and then her body falls into the ocean.

 

She’s out cold.

 

//

 

When Toni wakes up, she’s completely naked. She knows this because she feels the wind against her bare skin. Her throat is dry and her eyes sting when she tries to open them. Damn salt water.

 

Her eyes take a minute to adjust to the darkness around her. She’s in a cave.

 

Why the fuck is she in a cave?

 

She sits up before immediately crying out at the sharp pain that runs through her left side. Toni takes a deep breath before letting out many sharp, short ones. 

 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she curses, blinking away the tears in her eyes and looking around the cave. 

 

It’s so dark, she can’t see anything. But then, she hears something.

 

Pitter-patter of feet. Toni grits her teeth and tries to stand up, doing so very slowly. She leans on the side of the wall and listens to the footsteps getting closer and closer.

 

She does not expect to see a beautiful redhead, as naked as Toni is, entering the cave. Her skin, as smooth as it is, has blotches of blue scattered around. Toni swears they look like scales, but she’s pretty sure she’s dead and that this is just a dream—so she’ll just chalk it down to some skin condition.

 

“Who are you?” Toni asks with as much as a stern tone as she can muster, “Where are my clothes? What did you do to me?”

 

The redhead just blinks before turning around and walking away.

 

“Hey, hey!” Toni calls out, following the girl. The girl walks with awkward feet and yet Toni still struggles to keep up with her.

 

“What are you doing? Hey! Say something!” Toni keeps on trying to talk to the girl as they navigate through the cave. The shouting makes Toni’s ribs heart even more but Toni just wants to figure out what the hell is going on.

 

Suddenly, the mysterious girl stops, and Toni collides into her, gasping. The girl turns around and steadies her with strong hands on Toni’s shoulders. 

 

“Clothes,” the girl says tentatively before looking at something behind her.

 

Toni follows the girl’s vision and, sure enough, her clothes are on the ground in a pile. 

 

“Why did you take my clothes off?” Toni questions, limping past the girl. She uses her foot to kick up her clothes so she doesn’t have to bend down. Once she’s all clothed, she turns and stares at the redhead, who is looking at her with a tilted head. “And where are your clothes?”

 

“You were cold,” the girl says. At least she speaks English.

 

“And your clothes?” Toni asks, gesturing to the girl’s body without letting her eyes travel, too.

 

“Do not need,”

 

Toni opens her mouth to say something, but the girl just turns on her heel and heads off somewhere else.

 

“H—Hey! Where are you go— _ Dammit _ ,” Toni hisses, rushing to follow the girl. Toni gives up trying to talk to her and opts to just follow wherever she’s going.

 

As soon as Toni smells the salty air, she knows they’re coming to an exit from the cave.

 

The girl stops again, turns, and blinks.

 

“What’s your name?” Toni tries.

 

“Bad,”

 

“What?” Toni furrows her eyebrows, “Bad? Your name is bad?”

 

“I am bad,” the redhead shakes her head, pointing to herself, “bad.”

 

“Bad…” Toni repeats under her breath, “you’re bad?”

 

“E… Evil,” the girl says.

 

“You’re evil,” Toni repeats again. The redhead nods and points to the exit, “You… go.”

 

Toni is so confused—why does this girl think she’s evil when she saved Toni’s life?. Despite her confusion, Toni finds herself stumbling towards the exit, anyway. She needs to get back to the Serpents. They probably think she’s dead. Sweet Pea probably thinks she’s dead.

 

Just before Toni steps out onto the warm sand, she turns around to get another look at the redhead who saved her life—but no one’s there.

 

//

 

The next time Toni gets out on the water is four months later—Sweet Pea was adamant on keeping her on land until she was fully healed.

 

Toni doesn’t know the mission of the trip until she steps foot onto the boat.

 

“Are you shitting me, Sweet Pea?” Toni asks in disbelief, crossing her arms.

 

“We’re serious about this, Toni,” Jughead says as he passes by the two, “Ghoulies want to get to them first, but we won’t let that happen.”

 

“We’re hunting  _ mermaids _ ,” Toni scoffs, tempted to walk off the boat because—really?—hunting mermaids. The word makes her think about the redhead who had saved her months ago. She hadn’t told anyone, not even Sweet Pea. With all the days she’s spent on bedrest (forced by Sweet Pea), she’s had a lot of time to think about the girl. The girl with blue skin, who was stark naked, and called herself evil.

 

The girl who saved her from drowning. How could anyone have saved Toni in that shitstorm? It was a complete mess, who—or  _ what _ —would’ve been able to save her from drowning?

 

Maybe...

 

“We catch and kill a mermaid, we’ll have bragging rights over the Ghoulies for the rest of our  _ lives _ ,” Sweet Pea grins, nudging Toni.

 

“No,” Toni grumbles, deciding to step off the boat and back onto the dock. She’s shaking her head as Sweet Pea tries to get her back onto the boat, “No thanks.”

 

“Awe, seriously, Toni?” Sweet Pea groans, throwing up his hands.

 

“I don’t really want a part of  _ mermaid _ hunting,” she says as she walks away, waving a hand over her shoulder.

 

When the boat departs, Toni finds herself starting a slow jog to a familiar cave entrance.

 

//

 

The moon is out once Toni reaches the cave, and she barely manages to catch the redhead, who’s already on her way to the water.

 

“No! Wait!” Toni’s jog becomes a sprint as she hurries to stop the girl.

 

The redhead whips her head around, surprised at the noise. Toni runs up to her and stands between her and the ocean.

 

“You can’t go in the water right now,” Toni says, trying to regain her breath. The redhead stares down with confused curiosity. “It’s not safe.”

 

“Why?” the redhead asks.

 

“People are…” Toni takes another deep breath, “ _ Mermaids _ .”

 

The word makes the girl’s eyes go wide.

 

“You’re a mermaid, right?”

 

“No,” the girl shakes her head, trying to get past Toni, “No.”

 

“It’s—It’s okay,” Toni rushes out, stepping in front of the girl again, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

 

The roar of a car engine in the distance makes both girls gasp. Toni looks around warily, before looking back at the redhead.

 

“Can we go back inside the cave?” Toni asks, pointing to the cave. The redhead nods shakily.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“My name is Toni,” Toni starts off as soon as they’re settled in the cave. They’re sat across from each other. Toni had given the mermaid the flannel tied around her waist (and had to help her put it on, too). “What’s your name?”

 

“Bad,”

 

“No,” Toni shakes her head, “Not ‘bad’. Your  _ name _ , what’s your  _ name _ ?”

 

The girl looks confused for a moment, like she’s trying to remember, before she raises her eyebrows. It’s like a lightbulb clicked. 

 

“Cheryl.”

 

“Cheryl,” Toni repeats softly, “Okay, okay. You are a mermaid, right, Cheryl?”

 

There’s a moment of hesitation, but Toni remains patient.

 

“I’m not here to hurt you,”

 

Cheryl’s eyes flicker between Toni’s before she nods, “Mermaid.”

 

“Jesus,” Toni lets out a heavy breath, “the stories are true, then.”

 

“ _ Stories _ ,” Cheryl says, “I am evil.”

 

“The stories… Yeah, yeah, they said you were evil—that your people are evil,” Toni says honestly, “but  _ you’re _ not. Cheryl, you’re not evil.”

 

The words take a second to register in Cheryl’s mind and then she looks completely puzzled—like even the concept of her not being evil is more confusing than rocket science. 

 

“You saved me,” Toni continues, trying to get through to Cheryl, “that’s  _ not _ evil.”

 

“But… I am,”

 

“You’re not, Cheryl,” Toni repeats, “Look, you can’t go into the water tonight, okay? There are people. Bad people— _ evil _ people—trying to hunt for your people.”

 

“Hunt?”

 

“They’re trying to kill you, Cheryl,”

 

Cheryl sits up a little straighter, “Then… I kill them first.”

 

“Amazing plan,” Toni says sarcastically—which Cheryl doesn’t register as she nods along—and Toni shakes her head, “No, no—it’s a  _ bad _ plan.”

 

“But you said—”

 

“It’s a  _ bad _ plan,” Toni emphasizes, “it’s called sarcasm, it’s this thing where— _ nevermind _ —there are too many of them. You could never take them on.”

 

“Humans…” Cheryl stares deeply into Toni’s eyes, “evil.”

 

Toni smiles, glad that she got the warning through, “I agree.”

 

“You… are not,” a cold hand comes up to touch Toni’s cheek. Toni almost flinches away but manages to stay still as the mermaid starts examining her features. Toni gulps as Cheryl’s eyes quite literally scan every inch of her face. A thumb moves across her cheek.

 

“I have to go,” Toni whispers, feeling a little uneasy at the intensity of Cheryl’s gaze. Maybe it’s the nerves of having just discovered a species she’s thought of as a complete myth, but Toni’s feeling a little on edge.

 

“Go where?” Cheryl asks.

 

“Back home,” Toni answers, “they’re probably wondering where I am.”

 

“Okay,” Cheryl says, not moving her hand away from Toni’s cheek, “You go.”

 

“Okay,” Toni murmurs, standing up, “you’ll stay here tonight? You won’t go into the water?”

 

Cheryl nods, “I stay.”

 

“Good,” Toni breathes out a sigh of relief, “Goodbye, Cheryl.”

 

She heads towards the exit of the cave when she hears a voice call out to her.

 

“Toni,” 

 

“Yeah?” she turns around.

 

Cheryl’s standing there, Toni’s oversized flannel hanging low on one side of Cheryl’s shoulder and reaching down to her upper thighs. She brings a hand up to her chest, patting it twice, “Not evil.”

 

Toni feels a warmth welling up in her stomach as she smiles, nodding her head, “You’re not evil, Cheryl.”

 

And there’s the tiniest curl of Cheryl’s lips—the most emotion Toni’s seen from the girl so far—that makes Toni’s own smile widen. She lowers her head and exits the cave, her heart feeling light.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


//

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Cheryl had been swimming, trying to find food, when she spots the boats. At first she only sees the bottoms of the boats rocking against the violent waves, and then there are bodies in the water, too. It’s only one, then two, but then whole groups of bodies are flung into the water.

 

The water is turning red with blood and Cheryl swims closer, trying to see what’s happening. Most of the bodies in the water are struggling, trying to get to the surface. Cheryl gives a few of them taps on the bottom with the flat of her tail, helping them up. Then, one body, visibly smaller than the other ones, crashes right besides Cheryl.

 

It’s a girl, the only girl Cheryl’s seen so far. 

 

She isn’t struggling like the other people, she’s just… floating—drowning, more like it.

 

Cheryl wraps her arms around the girl’s waist and begins to swim away from the scene.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Cheryl carries the girl’s small body into the cave easily. She sets her down gently, listening to her heartbeat. The girl’s shivering and Cheryl looks at the soaked clothes that are creating a puddle beneath the girl.

 

She starts to unbutton the girl’s shirt and soon enough, the girl is naked.

 

Still, she is shivering, and Cheryl isn’t sure what to do. A breeze from the beach reaches the cave and the girl’s body twitches. Cheryl moves forward to pick her up again and brings her further into the cave, away from the wind and any other potential danger.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Cheryl finds the girl fascinating. Toni is her name. When Toni comes to warn Cheryl about the dangers of the water, Cheryl feels a tingling in her toes. When Toni’s fingers button up the flannel she had slipped onto her, Cheryl stares at her concentrated face. When Toni tells Cheryl she isn’t evil, Cheryl feels overwhelmed. For all her life she had been told she was evil—a monster that deserved to die—a  _ predator _ . And yet, Toni tells her differently.

  
  
  
  
  


Toni tells her the truth.

  
  



End file.
